“Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability to conjure these specters.” — Pierre Bayard Copy Share Image
“[…] there exists around the written world opened by the work a multitude of other possible worlds, which we can complete by means of… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“The paradox of reading is that the path toward ourselves passes through books, but that this must remain a passage. It is a traversal… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“[…] a given text may seem fictional or actual depending on the context in which we encounter it. The same is true for oral… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“As may be seen, there is only one sensible piece of advice to give to those who find themselves having to talk to an… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“A great number of elements in the characters’ lives, both psychic and factual, are not communicated to us. […] These characters, I believe, enjoy… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“(in which, along with Montaigne, we raise the question of whether a book you have read and completely forgotten, and which you have even… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“Reading is first and foremost non-reading. Even in the case of the most passionate lifelong readers, the act of picking up and opening a… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“Our relation to books is a shadowy space haunted by the ghosts of memory, and the real value of books lies in their ability… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“Fictional characters exert a great deal of influence over our choices in love by representing inaccessible ideals to which we try to make others… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“To speak without shame about books we haven’t read, we would thus do well to free ourselves of the oppressive image of cultural literacy… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“The title of the work, its place in the collective library, the nature of the person who tells us about it, the atmosphere established… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“Our relationship with literary characters, at least to those that exercise a certain attraction over us, rests in fact on a denial. We know… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“It is the reader who comes to complete the work and to close, albeit temporarily, the world that it opens, and the reader does… — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
“if you want to be able to talk about a place, the best thing to do is stay at home.” — Pierre Bayard Copy Share
